Showbiz Investor Gordon Crawford To Retire At End of Year

Veteran investment fund manager Gordon Crawford is retiring from Los Angeles-based Capital Group at the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. Crawford was a key figure in Capital’s numerous entertainment business investments including Time Warner, News Corp, Comcast and DirecTV. Crawford also was a big supporter of Lionsgate’s recent acquisition of Summit Entertainment. He also backed Lionsgate’s earlier effort to buy MGM. Crawford also has personal investments separate from Capital in Legendary Entertainment, co-producer of Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight and other movies as well as Peter Chernin’s Asia-focused media company CA Media. After Lionsgate stock value almost doubled, Crawford credited the company with developing “a very good creative team in film and television” and said Lionsgate is “going to be a major some day.” But he could be equally critical as he was with Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang after the company balked at a sale to Microsoft. Likewise he was particularly irked with AOL execs Steve Case and Bob Pittman (along with most former Time Warner shareholders) after AOL Time Warner stock plummeted in value once it became clear the combination was a bad marriage. Assets overseen by Crawford, 65, will be taken over by other managers at Capital. Crawford also famously turned on Disney’s then-CEO Michael Eisner and sold off nearly $1.9 billion of Capital’s investment in the studio. Crawford is also chairman of Southern California Public Radio and a major donor to Los Angles station KPCC. According to a Capital spokesman, Crawford’s plans “include playing more golf and spending time with his grandkids.”